As we build this infrastructure, we’ll keep working to support Japanese businesses in other ways. Our Tokyo startups campus is helping Japanese founders build new kinds of businesses, many motivated by solving social and economic challenges — like helping with health diagnoses or increasing access to education.
Providing digital training and opportunity
We want to help Japanese people learn the skills they need to use technology confidently. Since 2019, we’ve supported 10 million people in Japan through Grow with Google, and adapted our training programs to people and businesses affected by the pandemic.
We’ve seen in Japan and around the world how the pandemic has accelerated the need for skills in specific, high-growth jobs, and we’ve created new kinds of training models to meet the increased demand. That includes the Japan Reskilling Consortium, which we launched in June. It’s a collaboration between business, governments and the nonprofit sector, providing skills training in areas like artificial intelligence and digital marketing and a job-matching service to help trainees find work opportunities. The consortium already offers more than 300 training programs with more than 90 partners.
We’ve also launched a new program to help Japanese companies develop a workplace culture that fosters innovation — with support from Google tailored to different businesses’ needs. We’ll keep building on these initiatives and partnerships from here.
Expanding the benefits of technology
Through Google.org, Google’s philanthropic arm, we’re committing $6 million to support Japanese nonprofits working to expand the benefits of technology.
As part of this effort, we’re providing grant funding to the Japan Foundation for Aging and Health to help them reach 50,000 older people, with a mix of programs focused on digital training, community building and employment support. We’re also supporting the Safer Internet Association in its efforts to increase media literacy in Japanese communities. Other organizations to receive support will be announced soon.
These new commitments complement the important work our teams in Japan do every day. We’ll continue to bring the best of our products, platforms and devices to the millions of Japanese people who use them, from making Google Maps more immersive to helping Japanese developers on Google Play. And we’ll continue our partnerships with Japanese governments and institutions harnessing AI to confront challenges like climate change and disease.
We look forward to helping more people in Japan benefit from the opportunities technology brings, over the decade ahead and beyond.
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